Beat The GMAT

Jose Ferreira · Mon Mar 16, 2009 6:39 pm

Hi everyone,

Over the weekend, Knewton reviewed an advance copy of the 12th Edition of the GMAT Review (The Official Guide). We posted a preliminary analysis of the changes made to the Math section of the OG (see it here). Today, we do the same with the Verbal section. Note that, as on Saturday, we have only reviewed the practice problem sections of the OG (5-9). Those sections seem to be the most useful to (and certainly, the most used by) students.

In short, the changes are not minimal, but they are not radical, either. Each Verbal chapter contains 30-45% new practice problems, with the most new problems available in Sentence Correction. There are also some subtle, but noticeable, differences in emphasis. For instance, in Reading Comprehension, the rare Roman Numeral question type has been eliminated in the new OG. (Check out RC sample problem 113 in the 11th ed. for an example of this question type.) We don't know for sure if this means that the GMAT will no longer show Roman Numeral questions, but it does suggest that they may appear less frequently.

More importantly, the Critical Reasoning section is different in two notable ways. First, gone are all Critical Reasoning practice questions in which two or three questions follow a single prompt (check out CR problems 60-61 in 11th ed. for an example of these paired questions). These "prompt siblings" have been replaced with a question sub-type in which an argument is presented, two statements are put in boldface, and the question asks the test-taker to identify the roles of the statements in bold. This is a positive change; these questions have appeared in the official GMATPrep tests, without any analogue in the old OG, for some time. Hopefully, the new CR section will make for more authentic practice.

We welcome any further comment on these changes to GMAT format, content or anything else. Below, find our numerical breakdown of new questions (along with a list of every new Verbal practice problem in the 12th Edition of the OG).

Total (Verbal):
11th Edition: 403
12th Edition: 403

New Questions in the 12th Edition: 149 (37%)
Repeated Questions from the 12th Edition: 254 (63%)
Questions deleted from 11th Edition: 149 (37%)

Reading Comprehension
Questions in the 11th Edition: 141
Questions in the 12th Edition: 139

New Questions in the 12th Edition: 43 (31%), across 7 new passages
Repeated Questions from the 12th Edition: 96 (69%)
Questions deleted from 11th Edition: 45 (32%)

Critical Reasoning
Questions in the 11th Edition: 124
Questions in the 12th Edition: 124

New Questions in the 12th Edition: 50 (40%)
Repeated Questions from the 12th Edition: 74 (60%)
Questions deleted from 11th Edition: 50 (40%)

Sentence Correction
Questions in the 11th Edition: 138
Questions in the 12th Edition: 140

New Questions in the 12th Edition: 56 (40%)
Repeated Questions from the 12th edition: 84 (60%)
Questions deleted from 11th Edition: 54 (39%)

Here is a complete list of the new questions in each section (question numbers in the 12th Edition).

Reading Comp
==========
1, 2, 3, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127

Critical Reasoning
============
2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19, 22, 24, 27, 29, 32, 34, 37, 39, 42, 44, 47, 49, 52, 54, 57, 59, 62, 64, 67, 69, 72, 74, 77, 79, 82, 84, 87, 89, 92, 94, 97, 99, 102, 104, 107, 109, 112, 114, 117, 119, 122, 124

Sentence Correction
=============
1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 13, 16, 18, 21, 23, 26, 28, 31, 33, 36, 38, 41, 43, 46, 48, 51, 53, 56, 58, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 73, 76, 78, 81, 83, 86, 88, 91, 93, 96, 98, 101, 103, 106, 108, 111, 113, 116, 118, 121, 123, 126, 128, 131, 133, 136, 138

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cramya · Mon Mar 16, 2009 7:23 pm

Jose,
Thanks so much for taking the time to provide insights on the new OG.

Much appreciated.

Regards,
Cramya

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bluementor · Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:12 am

Are the OG12 questions organized by the level of difficulty, as it is in OG11?

-BM-

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Jose Ferreira · Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:28 am

Hi,

In each of the five chapters we reviewed above and here, the questions that were carried over from the 11th Edition appear in the exact same order in the 11th Edition and in the 12th Edition (they do not necessarily have the same numbers, however). In other words, there are no cases in which Question A used to be before Question B but now is after Question B.

Thus, it appears that the rough ordering of questions by difficulty has been preserved.

New questions were inserted in places where old questions used to be as well as in other places, and in general they do seem to increase in difficulty from beginning to end.

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babuk · Sun May 31, 2009 8:41 pm

Hey,
I took GMAT in Jan'09. I scored 650.
Now I am planning a retake this month (jun'09).

Earlier, I pretty much prepared using OG11 and OG10.

Do you think I need to buy OG12 now?

Pls suggest.

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babuk · Sun May 31, 2009 8:42 pm

Hey,
I took GMAT in Jan'09. I scored 650.
Now I am planning a retake this month (jun'09).

Earlier, I pretty much prepared using OG11 and OG10.

Do you think I need to buy OG12 now?

Pls suggest.

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Pooja Bhula · Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:11 pm

If it is not too much to ask for I would like to know the questions of OG 11 that are not repeated in OG 12, this way I can get good practice. I will practice only unrepeated questions from OG 11 and all from OG 12. Can I get this list for both sections math and verbal?